A big welcome to our newest team member!

The EST project is thrilled to welcome a new member to our research team this month! Associate Professor Melanie Kirmess is a speech-language pathologist based at the University of Oslo, Department of Special Needs Education. She also holds a research position with Sunnaas rehabilitation hospital. Her core research focus is aphasia and other acquired communication disorders however she is currently supervising PhD students across aphasia, fluency and dysphagia focused projects. 

At the Department of Special Needs Education Melanie is responsible for coordinating the professional content and curriculum of the master of speech-language pathology course. Melanie is excited to join the EST-Project and we are most certainly excited about her becoming part of our team as well! Welcome Melanie! 

From the EST-Project team

First meeting with the EST-reference group

On 23 January, we held our first meeting with the EST-reference group to welcome them to the EST-project. Representatives from the following organisations attended: University of Oslo, NTNU, Statped, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Mental Helse Ungdom (Mental Health Youth Norway), University College of Southeast Norway, and Nord University.

The meeting provided an opportunity for reference group members to introduce themselves to one another as well as an opportunity for our research team to provide information about the overall aims and design of the EST-project. The Norwegian Research Council has funded the EST-project for 15 million Norwegian kroner over 5 years from Autumn 2017 to Summer 2022. The main aim of the project is to determine the most efficacious treatment for preschool children who stutter.

The research team provided an overview of the three work packages embedded in the project: (1) meta-analysis of existing stuttering treatments, (2) randomized controlled trial for children who stutter comparing a direct treatment, indirect treatment and control group, and (3) development of national guidelines for treatment based on the findings from the randomized controlled trial.

Following this, a discussion was held exploring the strengths and possible weaknesses of the project. This was a very positive and productive discussion which allowed the team to review key elements of the project plan. The timeline for the project was also reviewed to enable the reference group to understand how they will actively participate in the project.

Student involvement in the EST-project was also discussed. The PhD and post-doctoral candidate advertised positions and potential opportunities for Masters students to become involved in the project were presented.   

Finally, the EST-project blog was discussed with the reference group. At the time of this meeting the blog had not been launched however members of the reference group were encouraged to consider preparing their own posts to be included on the blog throughout the project.

The first meeting with the EST-reference group was highly productive and we are looking forward to meeting with everyone again in September.

From the EST-project research team

Our team is expanding!

At the end of 2017 we advertised for a PhD position within the EST-project. We were inundated with excellent applications which we reviewed and shortlisted. Over the past month we have interviewed these shortlisted applicants and hope to make an announcement on the outcome of these interviews in the near future!

We are currently advertising for a postdoctoral position within our research team as well. For anyone interested in this role, the position description can be accessed here. You will also find instructions for submitting an application here. Applications close on 15th April, 2018. 

From the EST-project team.